Thursday, December 1, 2016

I was as freaked as you by the election
results, believe me. Successful
astrological prediction requires objectivity, and I didn’t have that, so I didn’t
attempt an election prediction. But I
was lulled into a sense of security by the prevailing wisdom that Hillary would
win, in spite of a lingering feeling of dread whenever I considered the
alternative.

Now that dread has taken a more concrete
form, and like everybody else in the world, I’m looking at least four years of
backwards motion. I’m accustomed to dealing
with backwards motion, since all the planets go retrograde occasionally. Sooner or later, they always go direct again,
and move forward into new territory. I
have no doubt that this will happen in the US as well.

But I’m still feeling a lot of
grief. I’m devastated that we’ll have a
racist in the White House, after eight years with the first Black
president. I’m sorrowful that the
president will be a misogynist, after a woman came so close to shattering that
glass ceiling. And I’m traumatized by
the election of a confirmed con man, during a time when so many are calling for
real change.

Astrologically, I blame it on Neptune,
the planet of confusion, illusion and hypnosis.
I feel that a large chunk of the country has been under a sort of spell,
and I didn’t credit it because it didn’t touch me, or most of the people I
know.

Yes, for a large part of the last year, Neptune
has been squaring Saturn, and so everyone has been looking for a messiah. Trump was an unlikely leader, all surface and
no content, but he recognized that it’s all about the energy you generate, and
he was good at exciting crowds, especially through corralling and focusing
anger. Seen from the outside, his
rallies looked eerily like the Third Reich, but experienced from the inside,
they must have been as satisfying as a good work-out (although I’m sure for
some people, some sick feelings lingered a while).

People egg each other on. And when a huckster can tap into mob mind,
and get everybody yelling and screaming the same words, he’s got a lot of power
at his fingertips. With the election
over, this energy is still emerging in the increased amount of harassment on
the street. This is not a myth. A friend of mine, an almost-bald cancer
survivor, has been threatened on the street because some men saw her as too
androgynous. This was in Maryland, but
there are reports like this from all over the country.

Will Trump keep fueling this anger
during his presidency? Will he keep his
mob focused on a common enemy? He’s more
likely to cause pain to his own followers than to actually hurt the objects of
their ire. There will still be as many
brown-skinned people sending their kids to school, as many women calling out sexual
harassment, as many gay people marching, but it will be many of his own
supporters who suddenly lose their health insurance or their Medicare
benefits.

But there are ways, used by all
politicians, to distract voters from all the ways they’re being screwed. One is war.
Trump may not be smart enough to think of that, but the people around
him will. So that does worry me.

The upcoming aspect activity is setting
a tone for the coming year. There are
two exact aspects in December, and both of them will be repeated twice more
during 2017. Both involve Uranus, the
planet of change. One aspect riles Uranus
up, while the other settles it down. So
this is the pattern in December, and a continuing pattern. One day, everybody is in an uproar, and
the next day, calmer minds prevail. Then, a
little while later, there’s another uproar.

The calming influence is the trine
between Saturn, planet of structure, and Uranus. This is a fiery trine, so it’s not exactly
mellow, but it does harness the innovative energy of Uranus, and move it
towards organizing, building systems, and long-range planning.

This could be a description of what
progressive people will be doing. It’s a
slow, steady campaign of anchoring a particular philosophy to real-life
consequences. It involves taking
responsibility for specific things, educating yourself and others, and combining
new technology with established wisdom. Everyone
will be practicing and teaching, but even with many shared objectives, this is
not about buying into a group mind. There’s a lot of scope for individual
freedom and initiative.

This aspect doesn’t just influence
political movements. There will be
plenty of business people who are able to combine a structured plan and an
exciting vision of the future. Even if
the US government maintains a regressive approach to global warming, there are many
individuals who will carry on towards a cleaner, greener future. There will be both independent efforts and
some loose coordination. This movement
may not involve as much screaming and yelling as the other side, but it could
still be a pretty exciting place for a young innovator.

And then there’s the other aspect, the
one that shakes things up, an opposition between Jupiter and Uranus. This is all about the rebellious, restless
energy of Uranus, so it signals some pitched battles. The confrontations that are forming in
December will be forerunners of those we’ll see in 2017.

For one thing, the legal challenges that
the Trump administration will have to parry may be considerable. Already, there’s a bump in questions about
Trump’s conflicts of interest, the relationship between his businesses and his
new position, and some of these come from sources that are harder to
ignore. Would Trump give up his
businesses to keep the presidency?
Somehow, I don’t think so.

For progressive movements, this Jupiter/Uranus
opposition signals situations in which the message can be broadcast more
dramatically, through action. We already
see this at Standing Rock, where people are protecting their homes and water
supply, but also making a powerful statement against additional oil delivery
infrastructure.

I’m not sure how this can end well, however,
once we have a Trump presidency. I worry
that an unsympathetic president will use the indigenous people as political
footballs, reviving that old cowboy vs. Indian storyline for his own use. Remember, his supporters are happiest when
they can vent their rage at a target.

But if anything, the explosive Jupiter/Uranus
opposition shows that people will not take suppression lying down. People will be standing up and fighting for
the things that matter to them. And whether
we win or lose the open battles, the organizing work will resume, a vast underground
network of practical, concentrated intention.

Storms can come along and shake a tree, and
sometimes they can topple it. But it’s the length and depth of the roots
that give it stability. So for this
month, and for the next year, my advice to everyone is to find your place
somewhere in those roots.